ASPEN, Colo.—Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis was among those who sent a judge a letter of support for Bert Fingerhut, the part-time Aspen resident sentenced last week for a scheme involving initial public offerings.
“That struck us that a sheriff would write a letter supporting a criminal,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Karl Buch. “And he wrote it on his professional letterhead.”
Fingerhut, 63, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in May over the IPO scheme. The former Wall Street investment banker was sentenced Friday to two years in prison. He also was ordered to forfeit $11 million in illegal proceeds, spend four months under house arrest and pay a $75,000 fine.
Braudis said he wrote the letter of support because of Fingerhut’s involvement with Mountain Rescue Aspen, with which the sheriff’s office works closely.
“I was asked by several members of the Mountain Rescue team for support, and I said, ‘I don’t even know Bert,'” Braudis recalled. “I then spent a half an hour with him, and he confessed his guilt and explained his crime. So I wrote a letter to counterbalance his criminal activities with his volunteer activities, which are quite impressive.
“He was out there saving lives in our community.”
Fingerhut has received support from Mountain Rescue members, who rejected his offer to resign.
“While we do not condone Bert’s actions, because he accepted responsibility and due to Bert’s many years of valuable service to MRA, we unanimously agreed not to accept his resignation and to keep him on our roster as a current member of our organization,” members of MRA wrote in a letter to Aspen newspapers.
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Information from: The Aspen Times,
